New Blogs, New Projects!

Before I start my usual ramblings I must show you my new shelves!  And thanks to Carol of The Polkadot Closet it is all organised so I can see all my fabrics and they don't get crumpled up!  Not quite so professionally done, Carol used Comic boards all pre-cut to a uniform size, me? I cut my own from the packaging from the two bookcases!  Nevertheless quite tidy... for me!  I love looking at my fellow creators' studios, they are usually very pretty and calming, lots of white and frills and neat drawers.  Well I do my best but somehow I don't quite get there... one day... but for now this works for me!

Over the recent weeks I have stumbled across some very inspiring, creative, thrifty people here in blogland! I have to tell you my son thinks that this blogland thing is hilarious... when I say "Oh I met this lovely person in blogland today"  he does that silly voice mimicking thing! But anyhow I have, so there!  Thing is these lovely people have helped to create a monster!  I have now taken to rescuing roadkill, by that I mean freebie, unwanted throw-outs don't worry I haven't turned into Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, buying copious amounts of sandpaper and spray paint and hoarding all manner of things that are well past their sell by date with the intention of making something useful and beautiful from them!

If you get chance hop over and visit some of them, well worth it!  Try Better After, Liz Marie, The Birdhouse Family,  A Pumpkin & A Princess to name but a few.  So anyhow, so far I have three new projects, courtesy of a very dear gentleman locally who gave me first pickings at his yard sale knowing what I wanted to do.  First a dresser, which is actually in very good shape and Lovely Man has the notion that it really should be left well alone... I however have other plans but I shall have to be cunning and work on that one.  Any suggestions... how to persuade him I mean,  I'm not too confident on my usual faite a compli tactics on this one?  He seems quite taken with it as it is... Hmmmmm!

Anyhow my second score is a garden slider! 

My friend across the street has one that I have secretly coveted for a while now!  Well, now I have one and it just so happens that I have a can of spray paint and a trip to Fabricland planned within the next week!  Oh yes I also got two matching, solid wood small tables which will look just so fab on the deck alongside said slider! 

Again Lovely Man wants me to leave them as they are... he's got this thing about bare wood!  I just want to paint, paint, paint!  I must admit I have also considered doing a tiled mosaic on the tops of these too, what do you think?

When the Cat's Away...

the mice come out to play!  Remember how I told you I found these lovely chair bows on Etsy (they are vintage and were purchased at an estate sale)

and how I said Lovely Man would hate them?  Well tonight he's on a night shift and I had a hot date with my sewing machine... and will you just look what I got done!  Not only did I get the chair thingies done but I also got another laundry bag done for the other bedroom! 

By the time I finished it was getting dark and so this was taken under electric light so not the best photos in the world but I was just so chuffed (that's thrilled to my Canadian buddies) I had to post!  I will take some more tomorrow in good light and draw up some sort of tutorial.  These four came from just one cream double sheet and some 6" wide tulle, but you could use pretty lace panels, printed fabric, or maybe plain with perhaps a Graphic Fairy print in the center back, the possibilities are endless!  What's more the Lace ones would have set me back around $60, these four cost me just $9!

One laundry bag finished.  I edged the top with a little victorian style crochet lace, and added a rose again courtesy of the Graphic Fairy.  I'm happier with this one although I'm still not sure I quite have the opening right, perhaps I need to stiffen the fabric or use and interfacing.  Back to the drawing board I guess.  Again when I get it just right I will post a tutorial!

So I just wonder how long it will take Lovely Man to spot the 'new' chairs when he comes home!  haha!  So, time for a nice cup of peppermint tea and a little bloghopping! Ciao!

Work In Progress

Finally this afternoon I was able to at least clear my work table and get to my sewing machine!  The rest of the studio is still in disarray but....

So this evening I set to making a laundry hamper to hang on the back of the bedroom door.  I loathe having laundry baskets in the bedroom so mine is in the laundry which is in the basement.  Of course this presents a problem in the evening when we're tired and don't feel like trotting off to the basement with our dirty clothes and equally I hate clothes dumped on the floor, so a little hamper on the back of the door seemed the perfect answer and in the morning I can simply empty it into the one downstairs!  I have been buying 100% cotton sheets in the goodwill for 99c and most times there is absolutely no wear at all in them, they are like new!  I also bought some plastic hangers in The Bargain Store, 6 for $2.50!  I had some transfer paper in my stash and found the perfect label courtesy of The Graphics Fairy which I put in to Photoshop and added the word "Laundry", before printing and ironing onto the fabric.

It needs some adjusting and a little embellishment, lace, maybe a little rose and so on, but for now I am tired so will go back to it tomorrow!  I also plan to make another for the guest room... can't decide whether to stick with this label or look for another... maybe I'll sleep on that!

I am fairly pleased that I will have made both for less that $5!  Although I do have a confession.  On the transfer package it clearly said an ironing board is not suitable but you should use a sturdy table with a pillow case laid on it.  It also said 'apply light pressure'.  So I put a piece of wood... on the ironing board applied light pressure THREE times and the darned thing wouldn't stick properly.  So, I pressed just a little bit harder... must have been quite a lot harder because the ironing board sort of sunk!  Yes I pressed SO hard I bent the legs of the ironing board!!!  Note to self:  When instructions say "do not use an ironing board' don't!  When it says 'light pressure' it actually means 'push hard'!

Week 21 - The 52 Week Project

This morning I looked sadly at my blogs feeling somewhat guilty that I have been so lax in posting recently.  In my head Marvin Gaye was crooning softly "Has anybody seen my old friend Abraham", and I realised I've lost my friend mojo!  Can anybody tell me where he's gone?  Gripped with panic I wondered why he'd gone and, more importantly, was he coming back soon?  And then I looked at my blog reading list and also realised that there were a lot of my favorite bloggers, who like me would post at least once a week (sometimes more) who were also not so prolific these days!  Are they all away looking for their mojo's too I wondered?

To be fair, I have plenty of little ideas floating around in this old brain of mine, but my studio is a mess on account of some alterations and renovations so I think maybe my mojo has just hidden away in a closet somewhere, afraid to come out lest he get moved, organised or worse!

So here is my attempt at a come back, an entry for the 52 week project headed by Lorrie Whittington, week 21.  It sums up my week perfectly - Fiddleheads!  No, not just an expletive that I might feel like yelling when I throw my hands in the air in despair at losing my mojo, vegetables!  These are a spring delicacy around here!  They are an unfurled fern which can be cooked and eaten cold in salad or you can saute them in a little butter and garlic.  I actually quite liked them although Lovely Man told me exactly where I could put them... but I won't share that little gem with you!

Welcome!

A year ago when we arrived in Canada my cousin gave me a Christmas decoration which needed a little TLC.  Well, it's taken me a while to get around to it but finally I now have a "Welcome" wall hanging for the hall!  First I took off all the holly and spruce, I also removed the top layer of the wooden bow which had, at some point, come adrift and had been nailed back on not altogether successfully!  Then I rubbed it down and filled the nail holes.

Next I gave it a coat of acrylic paint, in two shades of blue.

I purchased some wooden letters from Michael's at around $1.60 each and some wooden flowers and butterflies for $1 each pack of ten from Dollerama!  I had some little wooden hearts in my stash already and painted them in blues and pinks.  Finally I hot glued the letters and shapes onto some pretty pink ribbon and hung them from the 'bow'.  I'm really rather pleased!

So, next project is......  chair backs!  I saw these on Etsy

And Fell In Love!

I didn't want lace, however, because I thought it would be too O.T.T. with a crochet table cloth.  So I purchased a cream cotton sheet from the bargain shop (too impatient to wait till I go thrifting next week), I have some cream satin and cream tuille netting and I have a certain little design of my own floating around in my tiny brain.  Of course Lovely Man knows NOTHING... he will hate them because they are too 'poofy'!  So we're not going to tell him till they are finished and in situ... what's known as a fait a compli... one of those "Oh don't you like them?  But I've finished them now..." moments! OK?  Mum's the word!